Mary, Queen of Scots

Art Historical Context

This hand-colored stipple engraving portrays Mary, Queen of, the 16th monarch whose dramatic life and tragic end have long captivated audiences. Created in the mid-19th century, the print reflects the Victorian era’s romantic fascination with historical figures, when advances in printmaking made such images widely available. The stipple technique—built from countless tiny dots—allowed engravers to achieve delicate tonal gradations, while the added hand-coloring brings a lively warmth to the queen’s features and attire. Measuring just over eight inches in height, the plate exemplifies how prints served both as affordable art objects and vehicles for historical storytelling. Donated to the Metropolitan Museum by Susan Dwight Bliss in 1958, the work now resides in the Department of Drawings and Prints, where it offers visitors a window into the enduring cultural legacy of Mary Stuart. Its presence in the collection highlights the museum’s rich holdings of reproductive prints that once helped shape public imagination about royalty and power.